VOLT 2023: A Volition Archive

Released by Volition/Second Nature in 1992, “High (A Dance Compilation)” is a snapshot of the talent of Australian dance and electronic music artists at the time.

On double CD (VOLTCD88) and double cassette (VOLTC88), the collection of twenty tracks spans techno, house, trance, downtempo and rave music.

“High” signalled a new direction for Volition under their licensing deal with Sony Music Australia: less rock, more dance music.

The album introduced a number of artists new to the label, some who would become stalwarts and some of Volition’s biggest successes, and others who would only appear on this compilation before going on to do other things.

Then there are a few projects which were one offs or short lived, like Celtic Kings Of Rock’s (Boxcar’s David Smith and Crispin Trist) bagpipe banger “Rave The Brave” (also on 12″ vinyl VOLT67 and CD single VOLTCD67), or Gridlock’s (David Smith again, with Vision Four 5’s Noel Burgess) “Rocket Trip”.

Quite a number of tracks are exclusive to “High”, which alone makes it worth tracking down.

Some of my favourites from the album are South End’s “600 Miles From Nowhere”, Third Eye’s “Orgone Energy”, Now Zero’s “Falling”, Vision Four 5’s “Cyberphobia”, Sexing The Cherry’s “Steppin’ On” and Severed Heads’ “Twister”.

Sadly, some of these great artists are no longer with us. Ollie Olsen (Third Eye), Volition in house producer/engineer/remixer/masterer and DJ Robert Racic, and DJ Edwin Morrow (Sexing The Cherry, Mister Morrow) are gone, but they’ve left a brilliant legacy with the multitude of musical projects they were involved in.

The design for the album’s packaging, which I’ve always loved and is peak 90’s, was done by design duo The Very Wooly Experience (Tim Vary and Darren Woolford) who worked on quite a number of Volition/Second Nature releases.

If you’re new to Volition/Second Nature, count this album as a great starting point!